Interior Design as my De-stresser

Today was a rainy day that became very overwhelming very quickly. I had a baby appointment where we got the great news that Baby Girl will probably be arriving earlier than we thought. We have been excited about the news all day, but it quickly set in just how much I have left to do before she arrives.

Random To Do:

• Register car (a lot harder when registering it in a new state instead of just renewing)
• New church responsibilities that will be taking up more time than I initially thought
• Baby shower in 2 days (I've put off buying anything until this happens)
• Buy all little necessities for the baby (since we've bought nothing)
• Laundry (Husband's and all of Baby Girl's clothes)
• Clean the bathroom
• Pack my hospital bag
• Pick a pediatrician
• Install car seat 
• Start writing thank yous

 Projects:

• Hang bedroom mirror
• Entryway lamp project
• Convert coffee table to ottoman project (halfway done)
• Purchase bed pillows
• Entryway art piece
• Bedroom wall art projects
• Chew out FedEx for never leaving my rug when they come to deliver it
• Organize or sell the amazingly hidden piles of junk around our apartment
• Return some Ikea purchases (40 min drive out there ends up eating my whole day)

During all my mini freak out moments today I thought of this bedroom I fell in love with over the weekend and it immediately calms me down. Natural light, white bedding and a simple look fit my criteria for the perfect bedroom.

A Friday Fav: The Kitchen

Yesterday was a busy day for prego me. I drove out to Ikea to pick up some items to organize our Baby Girl's clothes and then did a couple a other errands. I took a quick nap and then the hubs and I went to the Bulls last game of the season with a couple friend of ours.

Today I am sitting in bed surrounded by a mess of stuff and while I really need to get butt kicking on everything I am staring at this. . . my dream kitchen.

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I hope to get most of my unfinished projects done this weekend, but we'll see what actually happens. Do you have any exciting plans or projects this weekend?

I'd Sell a Kidney for One of These

After yesterday's post about my rug purchase I decided to round up a few of my favorite examples of colorful and eclectic looking rugs to add a bit of color to your day. First, my all time favorite rug and styled hallway.

This one is in the home of designer and blogger Amber of Amber Interiors. I would give anything to have this for my dining room.

Ideally my rug would have a bunch of pink in it.

And I love what this rug does for this crisp white bedroom.

I HAVE A LOVE FOR RUGS!

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A Rug Hunting We Will Go

I fell in love with rugs the moment my husband and I moved into our first place with tile floors and low pile carpet. They not only added a bit of a comfy homey feel, but they covered up the ugly dark carpet color.

The last few months I have been on the hunt for an inexpensive kilim rug that has the perfect mix of bright colors (inexpensive? a girl can dream). Not only are large kilim rugs that aren't an arm and a leg hard to find, but I am always afraid they will be delivered to my house and reek of some nasty nasty smell (I like things clean and smell free).

I found this little article on Apartment Therapy the other day about taking a Crate & Barrel rug and adding some pops of color through paint in order to imitate a pricier rug. The idea was great, but I have been trying to steer clear of black and white when it comes to accessories like art, books, pillows and rugs.

Enter this rug. I was checking out Kilim rugs on Ebay the other day and somehow stumbled upon a company that makes colorful rugs and, while they are only striped and not all detailed out like a lovely kilim, the 2x6 runner I purchased was a measly little $20 which made me take a chance on the stripes.

I figure if I like the runner after giving it a test run I might but a few of their 4x6 rugs to layer who knows where to add some more much needed color throughout our place. For now I am thinking the runner might look best in our kitchen (it's all spread out along one wall and open to the living room) and I suspect it will find a place in the hallway or entryway of our next apartment which we will hopefully be moving into in the next couple of months.

What do you think? Not much of a risk for $20, but I'm excited.

Baby Stylings

We are purchasing a crib this week along with a stroller and car seat. We are very aware that, with the countdown at 26 days, we are cutting it pretty darn close. In my search over the last few months I have either found super pricey or very inexpensive cribs. I will have to check on the durability of the cribs I have selected below before buying, because they are the cheapos, but these are the cribs I am considering.

 DaVinci Jenny Lind 3-in-1

 Baby Mod- Olivia 3 in 1

Baby Mod- Modena 3 in 1
(This is actually the Babyletto Hudson, but I couldn't find it being sold anywhere)

Graco- Sarah Classic 4 in 1

I think the Olivia is out of the running because of the natural wood color on the bottom. I'm looking to keep all the baby furniture white. So, out of the other three cribs, which one do you think I should purchase?

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Mixing and Matching Fabrics

I received a few comments asking what fabric I used on my cane back chairs. I purchased it at Fabric.com, but they no longer sell the fabric. It was called Phillip Jacobs English Rose Lavender and it wasn't more than $6 a yard.

While searching their website I did find a few fun fabrics that would be great for mix and matching as throw pillows as well as reupholstering small furniture pieces. I believe only two of these fabrics was over $9!

When mixing and matching fabrics you do exactly that, mix and match.

• Pick 2 or 3 different colors you want to accent your room with

• Put solids and patterns together like florals and geometric shapes in order to get away from only solid colors

• Also, throwing a wild card fabric in works a lot of the time too

row 1: Differing shades of floral purples and a grey geometric pattern

row 2: Shades of blue and another grey geometric pattern

Throwing solid pillows into each of these mixes works great too!

row 1: These fabrics are very matchy matchy, but you already have your colors, white, pink and navy blue. Using similar colors in an abstract pattern would really complete the look. Or go super classy looking and throw in a solid dark blue fabric. This would create a crisp clean look in our room while still bringing in pops of color.

row 2: Here is matchy matchy again. Perhaps pair opposites by using the light and dark turquoise swirly fabric with the pink elephants. These fabrics placed on a neutral colored couch would really add some interest.

row 1: I see these fabrics maybe being used in a bedroom, young or old. I think by now you are getting the look we are going for here. A couple different colors tied together with similar and contrasting patterns.

row 2: This is more of the wild card pick. I love solid coral and then you have a geometric pattern and florals. All have some shade of pink in them, but they really just kind of do their own thing. Risky can be a good thing!

Living Space Transformation: Dark to Light

Our apartment feels too dark to me. No matter how many colored pillows I throw onto our sofa or pieces of art on the wall, the dark carpet and large dark furniture pieces really ugg up the space. For months I have been bouncing around ideas of giving our ikea malm dresser, which serves as our entertainment center, a facelift.

Now, I've seen some great "hacks" of these dressers, but I can't bring myself to glam up this piece too much. I don't really want it to stand out, but become more of a classic neutral piece that looks good, but mostly serves it's purpose of holding our tv and our stash of dvds, games, etc.

Enter my most favorite idea. . .

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In addition, in order to tie my natural wood cane back chairs in with our living space a bit better I am thinking of covering them in this fabric. I do not want to paint the gorgeous wood and I figure black and white fabric will tie into the overall room quite well and then I can add a splash of color with some awesome colored throw pillows.

What do you think? Do the drawers pop too much? Am I headed in the completely opposite and wrong direction with such a stark look? Any ideas would be most helpful.

A Bit Overwhelmed

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 The past few days I have been waking up very stressed about the next few days and the next few weeks which will end in the great finale of the arrival of our Baby Girl. I pinned this bedroom this morning when I found myself staring at it for a good 10 minutes wishing I was there and it were mine. 

Beautiful.

My Apartment on Made By Girl

Today I am over at Made By Girl sharing my loves and ughs of renting. Go here to check it out and to get a look at my apartment. I've made quite a few changes since these photos were taken and I'm excited to show you those updates soon!

The Space Between

I haven't given a tour of our little apartment yet because it feels so incomplete that I just keep thinking I will show it off when it is done. We all know that will never happen!

However, here is a small change I made just before I left for Pittsburgh. In between our window and television there is a large space of white wall. I have disliked it a lot only because I love symmetry and on the other side of the TV is are some oddly placed built in shelves. They are ugly!

Say hi to the empty wall space

So, for a while I toyed with the idea of creating a piece of large art to add color to a blank space but never felt certain about the idea. The other night I decided to change some stuff around the apartment, going $Free.99 is always a good way to start a design idea. Always look at what you have first and see what you can use. I decided to disassemble our entryway gallery wall (I've never really loved the entryway since I threw it together just to have it done).

I took some paper, cut the exact size of my frames and started playing with them. 

Here is where we landed. The top frame has a Monet (my favorite artist) print that I picked up in Paris while studying in London and the bottom photo is of our wedding day. Once we get a bigger picture I will swap it out, but I love the overall look. Not too much color, but the look is simple and clean which is always a good way to go.

Again, sorry for not showing a larger view of the room, but hopefully that will be coming in the next couple of weeks. 

Happy Friday!

Good Taste plus Patience

After 2 1/2 unexpected weeks in Pittsburgh I am back in Chicago with my wonderful husband and couldn't be happier. My sister had her beautiful baby boy and his 4 brothers think he is the coolest little guy.

Coming back means I have to face the many design projects that are laying around our apartment. With the arrival of Baby Girl in 6 1/2 weeks and the hope of a move to a larger apartment shortly after, I really need to get my butt in gear.

I spotted this quote on The Decorista quite a while ago, but it continues to bring me so much comfort and the confidence needed to keep up with decorating our apartment and also staying positive about many long term goals of mine.